Whether its raw materials, machinery, research and development or the latest manufacturing trends, this tag provides up-to-the-minute insights into the upstream part of the tyre industry.
Sentury is in the process of declaring its Spanish factory plans as a strategic industrial project with the government of Garcia, Spain. The tyre maker hopes that its plant in the As Pontes region of Garcia will be able to use this method to obtain fast-track approvals to speed up the entire project’s construction.
The recent publication of Shandong provincial government’s 2022 six department work plan states that the authorities are promoting the elimination of outdated production capacity. Within that, it is worth noting that the tyre industry is described as a regulatory priority. Specifically, if a tyre manufacturer’s annual output cannot reach 1.2 million all-steel radial tyres (excluding engineering tyres, aviation tyres and wide-section tubeless tyres) or 5 million semi-steel radial tyres (excluding run-flat tyres, high-end racing tyres, and ultra-low profile tyres), it is highly likely to be forced to integrate or exit.
Kordsa is cooperating with SES RFID Solutions GmbH to provide RFID tags for vehicle tyre identification and tracking. According to the company, Kordsa’s collaboration with SES RFID Solutions combines the patented SES technology with Kordsa’s materials to develop “a small, flexible RFID tag to embed in vehicle tyres before vulcanization.” The two companies announced their collaboration on 5 July.
Guizhou Tyre Vietnam plant’s first-phase project has officially begun operation with an annual output of 1.2 million all-steel radial tyres. This equates to between 2500 and 2800 units and the products are mainly sold to the United States, Europe and other regions that have implemented anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations on Chinese tyres or imposed special tariffs. The tyre maker said that the first-phase project’s production and sales are still in the ramp-up stage.
The recent news that Sailun Tyre plans to invest 17.48 billion yuan in setting up two factories in Dongjiakou, Qingdao, has received widespread coverage in Chinese media. The investment in the tyre factory is 15.18 billion yuan, involving 20 million sets of semi-steel radial tyres, 10 million sets of all-steel radial tyres, and 150,000 tons of OTR tyres. The investment in the 500,000-ton new material factory is 2.302 billion yuan. Sailun’s various production bases will mainly use the material factory’s products. According to Sailun’s calculations, the Dongjiakou tyre factory will achieve 21.9 billion yuan revenue and 2.96 billion yuan profit yearly. The annual turnover of the material factory is 12.035 billion yuan, and the average annual net profit is 923 million yuan.
The first tyre manufactured at Linglong’s Serbian factory – an “all steel radial truck and bus tyre” – rolled off the production line at 6:58am on 27 June 2022 China time (23:58 European time). Whatever the precise time, production on 27 June fulfils Linglong Tire chairman Wang Feng’s commitment that the factory would enter its initial manufacturing phase before the end of the first half of 2022.
Linglong Tires has confirmed earlier reports that trial tyre production at the company’s Serbia tyre manufacturing plant will commence by the end of the first half of 2022. In other words, the first tyres will roll off the Chinese tyre manufacturer’s Serbian production line by the end of June. Mass production is the next stop. However, since the first date refers to trial production, Tyres & Accessories understands that it will take till around August for the factory to achieve more deliverable output volumes.
China’s economy appears to have stalled since 2022. Recent data shows that the value-added of the manufacturing fell by 4.6 per cent year-on-year in April. An integral part of the national manufacturing machine, China’s tyre industry is also under pressure. “The most important task of our enterprise at this stage is to survive,” one Shandong tyre factory owner told Tyres & Accessories.
The effects of the Ukraine war are not present in Nokian’s first quarter reporting, published on 28 April. The company has seen good levels of Q1 growth versus 2021, especially in its car tyre sales, but also in its commercial tyre business. However, with the manufacturer highly leveraged on Russian manufacturing and European sanctions against the country ramping up, it has announced to investors that all bets are off regarding its 2022 forecasts. The negative effects are largely related to passenger car tyre sales – Nokian explains that its “Heavy Tyres” are produced in Finland. It adds that while it has stopped the distribution of these products in Russia, “Nokian Tyres has never sold tyres to the Russian army, and the Russian Federation is not a customer of Nokian Tyres.”
Kenda has won the “Best Practice Award” for manufacturing quality during the 26th National Quality Awards in Taiwan. The award recognizes businesses that demonstrate high quality management and is the only award for business quality issued by the Executive Council in Taiwan. Kenda was one of just 15 to win the award.
The war in Ukraine has brought “high uncertainty” to Nokian Tyres’ operational environment and manufacturing capacity, and as a result it is accelerating plans to invest in new production capacity in Europe. To help fund this capacity, the Board of Directors at Nokian tyres has decided to decrease the dividend payable for the 2021 financial year.
At the start of the year this column predicted a positive 2022 for the tyre business on the basis that we are better prepared for the unknown because of the adaptions made during the last few pandemic years. I still believe that. But my thesis is being tested by the implications of the now month-long war in Ukraine. All our expectations are being tested. For example, never before have I received an email which switches from normal editorial matters to “our country has been invaded” from one line to the next.
Japanese tyre manufacturer Yokohama is stopping production at its L.L.C. Yokohama R.P.Z. passenger car tyre factory in Lipetsk, Russia. Yokohama said it will “gradually stop production” in Russia “due to the current problem of raw material procurement”. The company will also donate more than $400,000 to humanitarian relief efforts.
Bekaert’s newly-expanded Russian tyre cord production operation is receiving strong demand – but solely from local producers. Speaking in the company’s full-year 2021 conference call on 25 February 2022, NV Bekaert SA CEO Oswald Schmid told investors that “all the business we do is for Russian customers. There’s no export outside.” At 12 years old, Bekaert’s tyre cord-focused Lipetsk plant is one of the firm’s newer plants. It employs about 500 people.
The first month of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has already revealed several consequences for mobility and the global tyre industry, as Tyrepress’s continuing coverage of the situation has shown. The resultant sanctions imposed on Russia by an international alliance and the response of multinational companies, at least 450 of which had scaled back their business in the country as of the publication of this article, will send reverberations around global economies. The tyre industry faces impacts on several fronts – higher fuel prices and further interruption to logistics chains and materials supply will have knock-on consequences for tyre sales that will unfold over the coming months. At nearly a month after the conflict began, tyre business analyst Astutus Research examines the immediate consequences for tyre manufacturing in Russia, as well as its neighbours Ukraine and Belarus. This analysis looks at the impact of events on the global manufacturers whose plants were collectively responsible for around 70 per cent of Russia’s passenger car and light truck (PCLT) output. For more Astutus Research analysis and forecasts for the global tyre business, see the report series ‘Beyond Covid-19’ in Tyrepress’s Report Shop.
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没电的话筒; Pixabay
Guizhou Tyre
Sailun
Linglong
Nokian Tyres
Kenda
CNES/Airbus; Maxar Technologies
CNES/Airbus; Maxar Technologies
Nokian Tyres